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What is this symbol???

Harpax

Registered
20 Jan 2020
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I was typing with a romanji keyboard and when I accidentaly typed "la" this came up: ぁ.
It's like a tiny あ, something like the little つ (っ) used to write long consonants. I googled it but I couldn't find anthyng about it in my exhausting 90 seconds of research.
So, does anybody know what is this symbol used for?
Is it an obsolete symbol? Is it even hiragana?

PS: I know that the "la" sound doesn't exist in Japanese at least nowadays, that's why this makes me so confused.

(Btw, sorry if it is a stupid question, I've been studying Japanese for about 2 weeks).
 
Harpax,

Take a look at some katakana examples that make use of small katakana characters.

SMALL U - ウゥ

フゥ!! Fou!! (name of a restaurant in Hokkaido)
フゥーハハハ! Hu ha ha ha! (laughter sound in a video game)

SMALL E - フェ

アウェイク Awake (beauty product brand name)
イェロー yellow
ウェーク とう Wake Island
カフェー café; coffee shop
ファーウェイ Huawei (smartphone company)
フェリー ferry (boat)
ソフトウェア software
チェーン chain (of stores)
ハイウェイ highway
フェイス face (n.)

SMALL O - フォ

ウォーカー Walker (English last name)
ウォーク walk (n.)
ウォーター water

Note how small ャ is used to distinguish the katakana word "cast" from "cost".

キャスト (movie) cast
コスト cost (n.)
 
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